West Midlands railways from the air
In the second of our exclusive two-part series looking at aerial views of railways in the East and West Midlands, RAIL presents locations in and around Birmingham, taken on July 17 2018
Birmingham New Street’s 13 platforms lie submerged beneath the Grand Central shopping centre, which opened in 2015. With more than 42 million passenger entries and exits recorded in 2016-17, New Street is the UK’s busiest station outside London, and the sixth busiest overall. A station has existed on this site since 1854, but it was demolished and completed rebuilt by British Rail in the late 1960s as part of the West Coast Main Line modernisation project. By 2007, its concrete brutalist architecture and lack of capacity had made it officially the least popular of any Network Rail major station, prompting the redevelopment of its concourse and entrance areas between 2010-15.
1. A Class 68 leads a Chiltern Railway service from London Marylebone onto the final approach into Birmingham Moor Street, as GBRf 66750 and 66760 haul a rake of aggregates empties across the grade-separated Bordesley Junction. Bordesley station is just out of shot to the left - its main function is to cater for football fans visiting Birmingham City’s St Andrews stadium. 2. The sprawling site of the former Great Western Railway Tyseley depot is now divided into Tyseley Train Maintenance Depot (TMD), operated by West Midlands Trains, and Vintage Trains’ operating base at Tyseley Locomotive Works (located around the turntable). The works not only supports VT’s steam-hauled charter trains, it also provides professional locomotive overhauls and maintenance to a large number of preserved railways. Tyseley TMD is the servicing point for WMT’s diesel fleets of Class 150s and ‘172s’, and is also used by some CrossCountry Class 170s, ‘220s’ and ‘221s’ owing to its proximity to the operator’s central hub at Birmingham New Street. 3. A Virgin West Coast Class 390 Pendolino races south on the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line near Ansty, in Warwickshire. Completed in 1790, the adjacent Oxford Canal provides a reminder of the chief source of traction in this part of the West Midlands prior to the completion of the Trent Valley Line between Rugby and Stafford some 57 years later. 4. A Chiltern Railways rake of Mk3s and Driving Van Trailer awaits departure from Birmingham Moor Street, with a Class 68 providing traction. Moor Street is now the second busiest station in Birmingham, following the renovation and reopening of the original Great Western Railway terminus platforms in 2010. They had become derelict and overgrown following their closure in September 1987, when services were re-routed to Snow Hill and new through platforms provided at Moor Street at the southern end of Snow Hill tunnel. Enabling works can be glimpsed to the north of the site, where Birmingham’s new HS2 station is due to be constructed at Curzon Street.